Review and Secret of Apple Tablet iPad

Steve Jobs released the tablet iPad today, a new awesome creation from Apple Company. We’re lucky to get a new one to review. Let’s take a look the detail secrets of the iPad.

The iPad Price

It starts at $499 for 16GB, 32GB for $599, and $699 64GB. Adding 3G costs a $130 per model, so the most expensive model (64GB / 3G) is $829. The WiFi-only model will ship in 60 days, and the 3G models will come in 90.

The iPad Size and Screen The iPad is a little fat. It’s a half-inch thick and weighs just 1.5 pounds, with a 9.7-inch capacitive touch screen IPS LCD display. The screen’s resolution is a dense 1024 x 768.

The iPad Hardware iPad is powered by a 1GHz Apple ARM A4 chip, and has 16GB, 32GB or 64GB of flash storage. It’s also loaded with 802.11 n Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR, a 30-pin iPod connector, a speaker, a microphone, an accelerometer and a compass. Video output runs through and iPhone-type composite adapter at up to 576p and through a dock-to-VGA adapter at up to 1024 x 768. No HDMI, no DVI—not even a Mini DisplayPort.

The iPad Battery Ten hours for constant use, with a one-month standby rating. Ten hours of constant use includes video viewing, so you could conceivable watch about six feature films before this thing dies.

The iPad Plan The 3G version runs on AT&T and comes with new data plans: 250MB for $14.99 and an unlimited plan for $29.99 a month contract-free. Activations are handled on the iPad, so you can activate and cancel whenever you want. Every iPad is unlocked and comes with a GSM “micro-SIM,” so you can use it abroad.

The iPad Operation System The operating system on the iPad is based on iPhone OS, In other words, it’s got the same as the iPhone, you can only display one app at a time, and there aren’t windows, per se. There’s a new set of standard UI tools as well, including a pull-down menu, situated at the top left of most apps.

The iPad keyboard Input comes by way of an onscreen keyboard, almost exactly like the iPhone’s. Typing on it is apparently a “dream,” because it’s “almost lifesize”.

The iPad browser The browser is essential an upscaled version of Safari Mobile, with a familiar, finger-friendly title bar and not much else. It doesn’t have Flash support.

The iPad Email Mail again takes its visual cues from the iPhone, but with a lot more decoration: you can preview your mailbox from any message with a pull-down menu, and preview any message from within the mailbox, with a pop-up window.

The iPad Music Player The iPad music player is even more hybridized, styled like a mix between the iPhone’s iPod interface and full-fledged desktop iTunes. Interestingly, Cover Flow seems to have more or less died off.

The iPad Video Player YouTube is available by way of an app, iPhone-style, which can play videos in 720p HD. iTunes video content plays back in a dedicated app, just like on the iPhone, and can also play back in HD. Movie codec support is otherwise the same as the iPhone, which is to say pretty limited.

The iPad Ebook

Apple’s also opened an ebook store to accompany the iPad, in the mold of iTunes. It’s called iBooks. It offers books in ePub format, and makes reading on a Kindle seem about as stodgy as, you should be able to download your Kindle app as well. This store doesn’t sell magazines or newspapers, which will be relegated to regular app status.

The iPad Accessories Right away, Apple’s offering three main official accessories: a book-style case, a regular dock and a keyboard dock. The book cover doubles as a stand, so you can prop the iPad up in a few different ways. The keyboard dock hooks up with the iPad when it’s in portrait mode, so you can type longer documents, charge, or both. The iPad will also support Apple’s Bluetooth keyboards. The iPad’s only really got one accessory port, and it takes an iPod dock connector.

Bad things about the new Apple Tablet iPad

No Multitasking This is a backbreaker. If this is supposed to be a replacement for netbooks, how can it possibly not have multitasking? Are you saying I can’t listen to Pandora while writing a document? I can’t have my Twitter app open at the same time as my browser? I can’t have AIM open at the same time as my email?

No Cameras No front facing camera is one thing. But no back facing camera either? Why the hell not? I can’t imagine what the downside was for including at least one camera. Could this thing not handle video iChat?

No HDMI Out Want to watch those nice HD videos you downloaded from iTunes on your TV? Too damned bad! If you were truly loyal, you’d just buy an AppleTV already.

No Flash No Flash is annoying but not a dealbreaker on the iPhone and iPod Touch. On something that’s supposed to be closer to a netbook or laptop? It will leave huge, gaping holes in websites. I hope you don’t care about streaming video! God knows not many casual internet users do. Oh wait, nevermind, they all do.

Not Widescreen Widescreen movies look lousy on this thing thanks to its 4:3 screen, according to Blam, who checked out some of Star Trek on one. It’s like owning a 4:3 TV all over again!

Doesn’t Support T-Mobile 3G Sure, it’s “unlocked.” But it won’t work on T-Mobile, and it uses microSIMs that literally no one else uses.

Adapters If you want to plug anything into this, such as a digital camera, you need all sorts of ugly adapters. You need an adapter for USB for god’s sake.

App Ecosystem The iPad only runs apps from the App Store. The same App Store that is notorious for banning apps for no real reason, such as Google Voice. Sure, netbooks might not have touchscreens, but you can install whatever software you’d like on them.